“Be memorable.”

Easier said than done, being memorable is one the greatest brand challenges there is. But, it could be argued, being memorable is quite literally the most important thing to your brand.

There are so many burger joints these days in my city, it’s hard to keep track. But when I want a really good burger, there are only three or four I consider. They are my personal top-of-mind restaurants in the burger category. For a new burger joint to elevate to top-of-mind status, a disruption has to take place.

One example: a friend takes me to a new restaurant, and it serves a burger I’ve never seen on any other menu, anywhere. Let’s call it the “Triple Kobe Avocado Burger.” I order it, it blows my mind, and I start telling friends about the new place in town with the Triple Kobe Avocado Burger.

This burger joint didn’t become top-of-mind just because someone took me there. It became top-of-mind because it did something memorable when I got there.

Another example: A new restaurant deploys a marketing campaign that grabs my attention. Maybe it’s a 500 free burgers on opening day. Maybe it’s a podcast with the chef who describes his process so intriguingly, I can’t help but try it. Maybe it’s a billboard with a giant message that says “YOU DON’T WANT THIS BURGER” and then in small print, “You’ll get addicted!”

Now it’s top-of-mind. Not because the restaurant did a marketing campaign. Because the campaign was memorable.

The undeniable importance of top-of-mind awareness is the reason why every customized Plan Developer study we design at Coleman Insights starts with a measurement of Unaided Awareness. It is fundamentally essential when we ask, “Please tell us the names of as many radio stations in your area as you can remember, regardless of whether you listen to them,” that your radio station makes the cut.

Awareness » Consumption » Loyalty

You can’t have brand consumption without first having awareness, and you certainly can’t have loyalty without consumption.

The best path to awareness is by being memorable.

Other important images that are tested in perceptual research all come back to memorability. Memorable personalities. Memorable features. Memorable imaging.

The burger joint example applies to every brand. It applies to how you choose where to eat, where to play golf, what beer to drink, stores to shop in, and yes, which radio stations and podcasts to listen to.

Is it harder than ever to be memorable? Sure. Thinking consumers have “heard everything” and “seen it all? I understand how you might feel that way.

But I promise you, there’s always a new way to present a message that grabs the consumer’s attention.

Recently, while his colleague read the safety instructions seasoned travelers have heard a million times, a flight attendant on WestJet acted out the safety demonstration while passengers watched attentively and giggled.

Shared on LinkedIn, the video has been viewed over 3 ½ million times.

Team Coleman logs a fair amount of travel each year, so we’ve seen our share of safety demonstrations. It often feels like nobody pays attention to the safety demonstration anymore. That tends to happen when you hear the message the same way every time. From burgers to broadcasting, from airlines to podcasting, the lesson is the same. Don’t deviate from your message, but challenge yourself to present the message in new, unique and memorable ways.

There’s magic (and results) in being memorable.